A Strange Illness
by Doggett.Rules
Summary: I own nothing Glee. Will has been feeling ill. What will happen when he collapses in the choir room. What will Emma do?


Will sat up in bed. He was freezing and his head was pounding again. He stared at the clock next to the bed and the numbers blared 2:43 AM.

_'I need to sleep,'_ He thought to himself as he stumbled to the bathroom for some Tylenol.

He'd been feeling rather off for about a week now, but he figured he probably just had a bug or something. He didn't have a fever; in fact he was so damn cold. He took two of the pills and ran his hands under hot water until he had some feeling in them again.

x

"Good morning, Will," Emma smiled cheerily.

Will barely looked up at Emma as she came in to his office.

"Hey, Em," He groaned popping two Tylenol in to his mouth to stop the tempo in his head.

"Will, you don't look so good," Emma worried, noting Will's pale skin.

"I'm okay. I just have a headache," He insisted.

Emma frowned. She could tell it was probably something more than that, but the bell rang, so she had to drop the subject for now.

x

"Will, it's lunchtime, I thought we could grab a bite," Emma popped her head in to see Will taking more Tylenol.

"That's okay, Em. I'm not hungry, right now," Will muttered.

All he really wanted to do right now was go home and sleep, but he didn't want to say anything. Who was he to let a little thing like a cold bother him so much?

"Will, you didn't break for lunch yesterday, you're popping Tylenol like they're candy, what's wrong? You can trust me," Emma shut the door and sat down on the chair opposite Will.

"I just have a really bad headache, Em. Honest. I didn't get enough sleep last night, so I probably got some minor 24-hour thing. It's nothing. Really!" He insisted, placing a hand on his concerned lover's shoulder.

Emma gave Will a once over and brushed her hand through his hair.

"Okay. But you're going to rest tonight," She stated.

"Deal. Now, will you let me get some work done already," He laughed, wishing the pain in his head would subside.

x

Will entered the choir room. As he told the club to perform he went to sit down. He took about four steps when the room started to spin, turn coloured, and then all black.

"Mr Schue? Mr Schue!" Finn shouted.

"Go get Miss Pillsbury," Rachel ordered.

Finn ran to get her and a minute later a sound of heels was heard.

"Oh my God. What happened?" Emma asked.

"I don't know, he just collapsed. He's so cold," Finn told her as he grabbed a cell phone and called 911.

"Is he breathing?" Artie asked, very terrified that there was something seriously wrong with his teacher.

"Yes. But his pulse is very slow," Emma told him, the fear evident in her voice as well.

"They're on their way," Finn said.

"He told me he had a headache today, but I thought it might be something else," Emma added, sitting there with Will's head in her lap.

"It's alright, Miss P. You know how he is, always trying to protect us. I'm sure he thought he just had a cold," Finn told her and placed a reassuring smile on his face, as they waited for EMS to arrive.

x

The first thing Will noticed when he woke was the thunder pounding in his head. Next he realized he was in an unfamiliar place with things sticking to his chest, a BP cuff tight on one arm, and an IV line with saline in the other. He moved to remove the cuff and Emma came to his side to stop him.

"Hey, Will, calm down. You're in the hospital," She said in a soothing tone.

Finn pressed the nurse call button to let the doctor know Will was awake.

"What happened?" Will asked.

"You collapsed when you were going to sit down," Finn explained his voice fixed with concern.

"Will, why didn't you tell me you've been feeling this sick?" Emma asked.

Before Will could answer here the doctor entered the room. "Hello, Mr Schuester. I'm Dr. Lewiston," She shook his hand. "Your EKG and chest X-ray were normal. Tell me what else has been going on with you,"

"I've been having really bad headaches and chills," Will paused.

"For how long has this been going on? And what other symptoms have you been having?" She asked.

"I know he didn't eat lunch yesterday or today," Emma offered.

"And you are?"

"Emma Pillsbury. I'm his girlfriend," Emma explained.

The doctor nodded.

"About one week," Will looked at Finn and Emma still not wanting to worry them.

"Mr Schuester, I can't diagnose you properly unless you give me all of your symptoms going in," She insisted.

Will leaned back in to the bed. "I've been dizzy, tired, upset stomach, and today I passed out," He sighed.

"And what is your pain level one a scale of one to ten, right now?"

"A seven," Will groaned, the pounding in his head in agreement with that number.

Emma and Finn hung back as the doctor listened to Will's breathing, and looked him over.

Will nearly jumped off the bed when she got to his ear.

"You have an inner and outer ear infection, Mr Schuester," She explained.

"That would cause all of his symptoms?" Emma asked.

"Yes, ma'am. When the inner ear is affected it can cause a lot of problems. And if you've been feeling unwell for a week that just made it worse. You really need to see a doctor much sooner next time. Repeated ear infections can lead to a condition called labyrinthitis, which can cause hearing loss. And in your line of teaching that wouldn't be a good thing," She smiled at Will. "I'll send the nurse in with some medication for nausea and pain, and some prescriptions including cipro, an antibiotic, to take home and we'll get you out of here, okay?"

"Thank you, doctor," Will said.

Finn could tell Emma was really mad at Will right now, and he didn't blame her one bit. He was relieved that his teacher was going to be okay. Before he could say anything the nurse came into the room.

"Okay, Mr Schuester, I have some medicine for you. You don't have any allergies do you?" She asked.

"I'm allergic to mushrooms," Will said.

"Well that won't be a problem. The first thing I have is zofran, for your nausea. This is going to burn a little," She pushed the medicine in to the line.

Burn. Who was she kidding? It was scorching. He tried not to let it show on his face, but failed miserably.

Emma could tell that the medicine was doing exactly what the nurse said it was. She raised an eyebrow at Will that said 'Serves you right.'

"Okay, this next medicine is morphine, for your pain," She let the drug filter in to the line. "Okay, I'll be back in 20 minutes to check on you."

Will liked the morphine _much_ better. His head stopped hurt right away. Head. What head? And the walls were starting to melt. That was a cool effect. Now he was smiling.

"Feeling better?" Emma asked him.

"Much..." He grinned sheepishly.

"Good. Maybe you can tell me what you were thinking in not telling me about you being sick then?" She asked.

"Ummm... I...Finn help me out here..." His glazed eyes turned to Finn's eyes for help.

"Oh no, I agree with Miss P, here," Finn was more nervous of her than Will right now.

Emma handed Finn the car keys. "Finn, be a help and bring the car around,"

"Sure," Finn grabbed the keys and made a quick exit.

"You're trusting him with the car?" Will blinked.

"Yes. You really do drive crazy," She joked, while Will dressed and they waited for Finn to pull up with the car.

"You're teasing me about this now? While I'm sick?" Will groaned.

"You better believe it," She smiled wrapping her arms around him.

"Okay," Will nodded, hugging her back and placing a kiss on her forehead. Then getting in to the backseat of the car.


End file.
